Expect a dogfight if Wolff proceeds with plans

Updated 12:02 am, Saturday, September 3, 2011

Precinct 3 Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff does not appear to be out to win any popularity contests among Bexar County sheriff's office employees.

Wolff, the lone Republican on the court, would like to see the commissioners take over operations at the Bexar County lockup and privatize it to reduce overhead. In the alternative he would like to start a petition drive to decertify the Deputy Sheriff's Association of Bexar County.

State law authored by Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff when he was in the Legislature several decades ago allows county commissioners to run a jail. But only one county, Val Verde, is actually doing that.

A Commissioners Court takeover and privatization of the Bexar County jail is highly unlikely no matter how good the numbers sound.

Republicans hold most of the countywide seats, but Democrats still hold a majority on Commissioners Court and have a claim to the sheriff's post. It would be difficult to imagine Kevin Wolff receiving much support from the four Democrats on Commissioners Court in his quest to yank control of the jail out of the hands of a Democrat, Bexar County Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz.

Even if his colleagues on the court were of the same opinion as Wolff, who sees it as a way for the county to save $7 million to $10 million a year, the plan would require Ortiz's blessing. The sheriff said in an interview last month that is not going to happen. He is concerned about his men losing their jobs if the jail goes private.

That means Wolff's only other option to stop the bleeding of funds at the county jail is go after the deputies' union.

Decertification of the union would require the collection of signatures from 20,000 voters in order to have commissioners call an election on the issue. Wolff does not believe he would have much of a problem coming up with that many signatures in his own commissioner's precinct. There are 506,000 registered voters in Precinct 3.

It's a bit too late to attempt to get the issue about the deputies union on the ballot for November, but Wolff is thinking of using the November election day for a massive signature gathering.

While dissolution of a union might play well in Wolff's predominantly Republican precinct, it is going to be a tough sell in other sectors. The deputies are not going to let go of their union without a fight. They gained their collective bargaining rights in 2005 only after decades of work.

Wolff says it's all about the bottom line. He wants the county to be able to substantially reduce the number of detention officers at the jail now that it is running below capacity, and transfer some of those savings to the law enforcement portion of the sheriff's budget.

The unincorporated areas of the county are growing and there is a bigger demand for patrols, he said.

Wolff realizes he may be upsetting more than the sheriff's employees if he decides to take the issue over the union to the voters in May. City Council might not be too happy either.

The city is eyeing a possible bond election in the spring, and placing it alongside a county referendum on the union could make for some very hostile voters at the polls who may not be too receptive to a bond package.

The clock is ticking. Wolff will have to make a decision soon on whether to take on the union's decertification.

It will be interesting to see how many friends he still has at the end of it all if he does decide to move forward.